First Bow hunt!!

Hi Guys
Just like to share a bit of success I had with my first bow hunt. I got my first bow a 2nd hand PSE X Force Axe about 3 months ago. After alot of ******* about to try an adjust it for me we got it shooting well and I was happy out to 35 yards. I had never bow hunted before and this close range stuff was new to me.

Anyway last week a mate of mine came down to my place for the weekend hunting so after work on Friday we set off. We were mainly after Chamois(alpine antelope) or Red Deer. The area I live has some of the highest concentrations of Chamois in the country. Just as we were about to leave town I decided to glass up onto a slip in the bush about 2km away. Luck would have it that I spotted 3 Chamois feeding on the slip. I had seen some animals on this slip once before and have been keeping my eye on it.

We decided to have a crack at these Chamois on the slip so quickly left the car park and started out power walk/jog up to the slip. Its was rather late(8.30pm) so we had to go fast or we would run out of light. For those of you who don't know what the NZ bush is like its rather hard to stalk through. It is a jungle. Visibility on the walk up was 10 yards or less in most places. its ferns with vines and all manner of **** to get tangled up in plus its steep as hell. best description I have heard is "Its like the Amazon on top of the Himalayas" haha. My mate who was with me(an American) was a bit surprised as this was his first time in the south west coast bush.Attachment 30417
This photo shows some easy stuff on the flat.

Anyway after a while of hard slog we had gained some height and it looked like the slip/clearing was just to out left about 30 yards away. I have been up to the slip before a couple of time but there is no tracks to it and I did not have my GPS so we were just following our noses really.
I crept over to the clearing and could just see out on to it. judging by where we had last seen the Chamois(about an hour ago) and thought we should go higher up. Its best to always hunt from above I find. We crept up hill another 20 odd yards through some vertical vine crap. From here I snuck out toward the clearing again.
As luck would have it there was a young Chamois out on the slip, I ranged him at 22 yards. I could not get a clear shot through the bush and he had not seen me so I stayed put. Adam(my mate) was mean while perched on a old tree about 3 feet behind me and he couldnt see a thing. I ranged a few spots where I thought the Chamois might move to and as I was doing so a mature doe Chamois moved into sight.

She was at 16 yards and must have got wind of as she was quite alert. I some how managed to get to full draw in among the vines. She was hard quartering away from me...

I felt good so let rip. Id never seen a bow shot animal before in real life and was amazed at the sound of the impact. A solid Whack.
She stumbled at the shot and tore off with the young buck and another doe we had not seen below us.

I was pretty happy but nervous aswell. I wasn't sure if it was the right place to hit and was really worried about vines/leaves hitting my string as I fired.
After a few of minutes and with Adam assuring me it was a good shot we crept over to where she was standing when I fired. On the ground was an arrow soaked in blood!!
Inspecting the arrow. pretty happy!!

I was super happy!! Complete pass through and plenty of blood on the arrow. The time was 9.30pm one hour exactly after we had spotted them from town.
we sat and waited for 15 more minutes but it was starting to get dark so we decided to try and find the blood trial.

I have never tracked a bow kill animal before and this is where Adam really helped me out. I was pretty hopeless at finding blood but he was on to it and with the help of my head torch we were soon finding a fair amount of blood.
After about 40 mins of tracking and only going 40-50 yards from where I first shot from we found my Chamois doe.

was really amazed at the damage from the broad-head (125gn Muzzy)
Took out 3 ribs on the way in,smashed the top of the lungs and severed the wind pipe the broke 2 ribs on the way out!
Inside the rib cage

Here is the Chamois head after I cleaned it up. along side some other ones I shot late last year.
The doe is on the far left 7 1/2 inches beside a young buck(7 1/2") and a older buck(9 1/2')

We managed to get a nice young buck for Adam the next morning but that's a different story haha.

This was first time I had ever taken my bow out for a hunt and it was a awesome experience. Cant wait to get back out there and have another crack at some more Chamois or Tahr. Thanks alot to Adam for his tracking skills made my life alot easier and less stressful haha.